RIYADH, Feb 9: Saudi Arabia prepared on Wednesday for the first election in the history of the kingdom, a men-only municipal vote that represents a cautious initial step towards reform.

Some 148,000 Saudi men, aged 21 and over, who registered their names on electoral lists were due to choose on Thursday half of the 208 members of the 38 municipal councils in the capital Riyadh and its surroundings. The other half will be appointed by the government.

Women, who make up more than 50 per cent of the population, have not been allowed to Participate in the polls, despite neutral rules that say citizens over 21 years of age, except military personnel, have the right to vote.

The election campaign, which kicked off Jan 29, has been a crash course in democracy for Riyadh residents who had never seen before electoral advertisements in the press and on street billboards or even tents erected along main roads to receive voters and hold press conferences.

Voting in the Eastern Province and the southwest is set for March 3. Electors in the western Muslim holy regions of Makkah and Madina, and the north, will not cast their ballots until April 21.

The municipal polls are the first tangible sign of the much-awaited reform campaign launched in the Saudi kingdom in the last few years since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Since then, Washington has exerted pressures for reform and openness in Saudi Arabia, a longtime main US ally in the Middle East.

Moderate religious leader Sheikh Mohsen al-Awaji said the holding of the elections was due to many factors, including the troubled situation in Iraq since the April 2003 ousting of the regime of Saddam Hussein by the US-led coalition.

"It is a very, very small step in the right direction," he told AFP, adding: "But it is not enough." And that was the reason why he had decided to boycott the polls.

A total of 1,818 candidates are running in the first round, 646 of whom are competing for just seven seats on the capital's council.

The number of candidates suggested a strong interest by the public.-AFP